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Top-secret plans found in trash

OTTAWA–Defence officials are scrambling to find out how plans for a top-secret building for Canada's counter-terrorism unit were found in the garbage in downtown Ottawa.

"They launched an investigation immediately," a government official told the Star.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday the discovery was a "huge concern to me," but added little more.

"I'll wait for details on that ... and we will find out how that happened," Day said.

At least one opposition critic said the discovery throws into doubt whether the Department of National Defence can even go ahead now with building the facility.

The blueprints were found on March 13 by the spouse of Anthony Salloum, a defence analyst with the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, a left-wing Ottawa think tank, while the couple was on their way to dinner.

The 26 blueprints, clearly marked as defence department documents, show everything from the location of the security fence at CFB Trenton to the floor plan of the new home for the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit.

This first response unit would swing into action in any biological, nuclear or chemical attack, so its work is naturally top secret.

Salloum said the blueprints were either schematics of a rejected proposal to construct the building, in which case a private contractor appears to have carelessly disposed of the documents, or there has been a major security breach at defence headquarters.

"Clearly, they were of some import at some point to DND," Salloum said.

The Rideau Institute, where Salloum works, is an independent group that provides research, analysis and commentary on public policy issues, and has been critical of military spending.

Salloum said finding the blueprints was "surreal." He wondered aloud about the chances that a defence analyst often critical of military policy would be the one to stumble across the documents.

He said the defence department should have a policy in place to make sure that work done by contractors for the military is properly disposed of when that work is completed or no longer required.

Liberal MP Denis Coderre (Bourassa) said a breach of security like this cries out for immediate changes to the protocol on how to get rid of sensitive information.

"Somebody should lose their job over this," Coderre said, adding that the incident puts Canada in a bad light on the international stage regarding the handling and disposal of sensitive information.

NDP critic Dawn Black (New Westminster-Coquitlam) said the incident "really calls into question what they can do now about their plans for this unit at the base."

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a security expert with the Northgate Group, said whatever happened in this case, it was the height of "stupidity" at a time when security of information is so crucial.

Juneau-Katsuya, who was with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for 21 years, said in an interview there is always the fear that a breach like this is the "tip of the iceberg" of a systemic problem.

He said there are only two scenarios – that the information was carelessly thrown out or it was purposely put there for someone to find.

"It is an interesting coincidence that it happens to be a group, which would be highly critical of DND, that happens to find it."

Not since 1999 has there been such a breach of security, Juneau-Katsuya said, when top-secret CSIS documents were stolen after being left in a briefcase on the back seat of a parked car in Toronto. The agent was at the Air Canada Centre watching a hockey game when the theft occurred. The briefcase, stolen by drug addicts looking for money, was never recovered.

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